LIstening to Wwise sounds in the Unity Editor

Question

Wwise is integrated in Unity 5.0 for the project just fine.  The issue is this:

We import animations from Maya as fbx files and use the Unity Event timeline to add tags to the animations that trigger sound events in Wwise. I can tag animations, then switch to the game window to try and listen; hoping the animation I just tagged might get played, but I CANNOT hear any sounds in the editor window where I tag the animations.  I cannot be the first person to run into this issue.  How do I enable the ability to initialize the AK Audio Engine in the editor window so I can iterate on sound tag placement when using the Event Timeline?  This is a blocking issue on two existing projects using Unity and Wwise.

 

If we need to build a third party tool so be it, but I can't imagine that a solution for this does not already exist somewhere...

 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Todd Masten

Audio Director - Microsoft

Answer 1

Unfortunately, the SoundEngine only gets initialized when actually playing the game. We do have an issue on our road map to run the SoundEngine when in the editor, but I can't give a time estimate for its availability.

Comments

Hi there.

We're currently looking at integrating Wwise into an editor-based utility to create our in-game cutscenes. Naturally, we need audio playback whilst building these to get our dialogue and sfx timing correct.

Has there been any further movement along the road-map towards supporting the SoundEngine in the editor?

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Hi Is this solved now?

Working on creating a custom unity scene that would allow preview of animation/audio, and tagging via Wwise.  This would help with rapid iteration of sound design/sync for current and new game animations. This feature is native in UE4, but not currently native in Unity.

Ideally, Unity scene would allow the following:

Sound designer to drop model in Unity scene - press play to preview the animation in the timeline, and hear the sounds via Wwise

See all sub animations for the model - click on the sub animation to preview

Field that allows addition for Wwise event

Play button that can trigger one-shot or loop

Field for the bone that sound would attach

Would be nice if we can see the bones on the character

Would be nice to see any particles attached

Similar to this but not exact -

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/mecanim-event-editor-16357

and

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/animation-event-key-editor-24097?fbclid=IwAR2JshcjkBA8sQHoTKakzglLlDiZX8FD5oJD7nGXOzrAOXOKpcCwBSyWOVQ